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SpringFest & Car Show in Haltom City On Saturday, March 28, Haltom City will host its Car Show & SpringFest, a free event with plenty of family-friendly fun. The event will take place at Haltom High School from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Activities...

Free Turkey Taco at Del Taco Print a coupon to receive a free Turkey Taco at Del Taco with any purchase. Pair it with a drink and you've got a cheap lunch! The offer is good through April 2.
Find your local Del Taco here.

iMake Festival at Science Museum This weekend, March 28-29, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History will host iMake Maker Fest, a celebration of invention, creativity and resourcefulness. Regular Museum admission gets you entry into...

Ren Faire Preview Day at Ridgmar Mall On Thursday, March 26, Ridgmar Mall will host a Scarborough Renaissance Festival Preview from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Get a sneak peek at the fun ren faire, which kicks off in early April in Waxahachie. It promises...

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I just stumbled across this one on the Web. Right now, you can go to www.shopsmartlookfab.com to claim a FREE $10 gift card to Hulen Mall, no strings attached. When you get to the web page, just click on offer #2 (or wait for the rotating menu to turn to offer #2) and enter your email address. You’ll be sent a confirmation in your email, which you can then print and take to the mall anytime from Sept. 17 to 19. When you present your e-mail, you’ll get your gift card!

Don’t wait! A limited number of gift cards are given and when I checked in, there were 148 left.

Edited to add: I have not yet received my confirmation e-mail. I am not sure if they are going to send it at a later date or if it just takes a few hours. If you get yours, comment here and let me know how long it took.

Here’s a great offer for all you mag addicts: Fitness and Sargento Cheese are partnering to offer a one-year subscription to Fitness for just $5 plus tax. Just go to www.fitnessmagazine.com/sargento to claim your subscription. I saw this offer advertised on a bag of cheese and I just had to check it out.

I no longer subscribe to Fitness, but I think this offer may make me reconsider.

Today, the folks at Starbucks just announced a sweet new deal: Register any Starbucks card online, and you’ll be mailed a postcard good for a FREE beverage on your birthday. Read the details and how to’s here.

The greatest thing about this is that you don’t have to have a Starbucks credit card to participate in this program. All you need to do is buy a Starbucks gift card and register it online, then make sure you have your birthday and mailing address entered in your account. I plan to get a card and load it with about $20 or $25, which will be enough to get me through until my birthday in January.

Plus, when you register a gift card online, you’ll be part of the Starbucks Card Rewards program, which gets you all sorts of neat stuff, like free syrups, free brewed coffee refills and 2 hours of free wi-fi per day. I can’t think of a better reason to buy a gift card!

I admit, I have never been a big fan of shopping at warehouse stores and price clubs. The need to buy a membership, the giant shopping carts, the economy-sized packages…it all just scared me. But I ventured to my local Sam’s Club this week, and I have to say – it’s pretty fantastic, and I’ll probably be going back soon.

To begin with, the quantities of food are larger than normal, as you might expect. But I figured something out while cruising the aisles - buying in bulk saves time, because it reduces my need to run to the grocery store because I ran out of this snack or that kitchen staple. More time is always a good thing, at least in my world.

Second, buying in bulk allows you to take advantage of economies of scale. The packages at Sam’s Club, at first glance, look like they might cost more, if you just look at the price on the shelf tag. But when you break it down ounce by ounce or serving by serving, it’s usually much cheaper to buy the big package. Just looking at the prices, I estimate that a $40 membership would pay for itself within a few weeks.

Plus, if you have kids or care about schools, now is a better time than ever to buy at Sam’s. From now until September 4, Sam’s is partnering with several of America’s favorite grocery brands for “The Big Clip” campaign. When you buy participating products, such as Ziploc sandwich bags and Cheerios cereal, you’ll get packages with bonus Box Tops for Education coupons on them. Be sure to clip them and turn them in to your favorite school so they can get a little extra cash. (If you have questions about the Box Tops for Education program, visit www.boxtops4education.com.)

And now for the best part – the giveaway! From now until Sept. 4, you can enter for a chance to win one of five $25 Sam’s Club gift cards, plus a one-day pass so you can go and spend it! You can get up to four entries for this contest. Here are the ways to enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post. Be sure to include at least your first name and email address, so I can get in touch with you if you win.

2. Tweet about FWotC and our giveaway on Twitter. You must include a direct link to this post. (It’s http://www.fortworthonthecheap.com/?p=859.) After you send your tweet, comment here and include your Twitter username for verification purposes.

4. Become a subscriber here. Again, leave a comment here with your email address so I can verify.

I’ll take entries through midnight Central time on Sept. 4 and will announce the winners on Saturday. US residents only, and you must be 18 years old.

After you’ve cast your entries, be sure to enter The Big Clip Sweepstakes. You could win 500,000 Box Tops for your school!

Disclosure: This giveaway was sponsored by MyBlogSpark, who provided the gift cards to give away and a Sam’s membership so I can tell you about the great deals there. I have not been compensated in any other way by MyBlogSpark.

I’m sure at least a few of you know that my day job – you know, the one that pays the bills – is that of a professional writer. And most of the time, I keep quiet about it on here, because most of the things I write about – urinary incontinence, government software, and haunted houses - aren’t really relevant to this site. (Yes, I really have written about all three of those things lately.)

But I’ve got a new story on Bankrate.com that you should check out, if you’re in the market for a home for the first time, or if you’re thinking about it. Now, you can use the $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit well before tax time, to help contribute toward a down payment, closing costs, or anything else. It’s just one of the cool new dealios to come out of the stimulus bill – and it could make for a great bargain on buying a home.

And now, back to your regularly-scheduled posts on freebies, discounts and deals…

Do you like Crocs – those rubbery, holey shoes that seem to be on everyone’s feet lately? I don’t personally wear them, but my kids do. I like that they can slip them on and off by themselves. And right now, Crocs.com is having a great buy one, get one free sale on select styles! Plus, they’re offering FREE shipping on your purchase to sweeten the deal.

I have bought from Crocs.com before, and I can say that their customer service is awesome. I had to send back both pairs once because they didn’t fit well – apparently, there is a lot of variation in how the shoes fit; some batches of a certain size can be larger or smaller than other batches of the same size. Anyhow, they gave me a prepaid shipping label and refunded my money in full. And since I used a free shipping code, I wasn’t even out the initial shipping cost.

What have you got to lose? Check out the BOGO sale and see what you can find for cheap.

Act on this one soon! On Aug. 28, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., you can enjoy a free “lunchtime facelift” at Moda Salon and Spa, an Aveda salon on Camp Bowie Boulevard. Offered in conjunction with Skin Solutions & Body Sculpting, this non-invasive treatment purports to smooth away fine lines around the eyes, forehead, lips and neck.

By now you’re probably familiar with Restaurant.com, the site that allows you to buy $25 restaurant gift certificates for as little as $2. It’s great, but sometimes you want discounts like that on something other than food. The answer? The Radio Shopping Show. I came across this little find while driving around listening to A.M. radio this morning.

Here’s how it works: Every weekday morning from 9 to 11 a.m., and on Saturdays from 9-10 a.m., you can tune your radio to 1360 A.M.and listen to the deals offered. Some are for gift shops, flower shops, specialty stores and, of course, restaurants. Most – but not all – of the participating stores are located on the Dallas-ish side of the Metroplex, though I have heard deals from a few stores in Grapevine. When you hear a deal you like, call their phone number and order your certificate. You can pick it up from the station’s office on John W. Carpenter Freeway in Dallas, or have them mail it to you.

A few caveats, though – certificates are not refundable or exchangeable and they must be used before their expiration date, or you’re out of luck. Read the complete rules before you shop. And while you’re on their website, sign up for a free Money Saver Key Tag, which enables you to shop more quickly, and entitles you to special members-only discounts.

The deals are awesome – just during the hour or so I listened today, I heard discounts of at least 50 percent, sometimes more. If you don’t have time to listen to the radio show, you can check out their list of dealsand call anytime to order at 1-800-277-1637, extension 703.

I posted earlier this year about Just Between Friends, which is a twice-yearly consignment sale offering kids’ clothes, toys, maternity, housewares and more. You can make money through this sale by selling good-condition items that you no longer want, or you can spend money by getting some great bargains. (Most people end up doing a little bit of both.) The sale held during the latter part of the year focuses on fall and winter kids’ and maternity clothing. It’s a great place to find gently used coats, sweaters, Halloween costumes and jeans.

I have participated in my local JBF sale as both a seller and a buyer, and I’ve got these tips for getting the most from the sale:

Be a consignor. At most sales, those who consign get a chance to shop one of the presales, which is a private event held a day or two before the sale comes open to the public. Even if you only sell a few things, it’s worth the trouble to get to attend the presale.

Volunteer. All JBF sales need people to help put items on racks, check people out and generally just keep the peace. If you volunteer, you’ll also get a presale pass. Some sales also give their volunteers a bigger commission on the items they sell. (At the sale I participate in, volunteers get 70% back instead of 65%.)

Start early. Everyone who sells stuff at JBF must tag their own items before the sale so they can get their commission. If you plan to sell, don’t wait until the day before the consignor’s deadline to start tagging your things. The process takes a while, and you don’t want to be up at 2 a.m. shoving safety pins through thick overalls. That’s how accidents happen. (Ouch!)

Follow the rules. Just Between Friends prides itself on having racks of organized clothing, just like a department store, so the requirements for tagging can be stringent. Read the complete rules for taggingon the JBF website and follow them to the letter.

Don’t bring junk. Stained, torn or otherwise damaged items are not accepted at JBF. Choose wisely, and send the rest to Goodwill.

Shop early. If you are able to get a presale pass, it’s best to go when the sale opens, because the best items go quickly. Leave the kids at home, if you can.

Shop late. Most sales slash their prices in half on the last day of the sale. After you’ve shopped early for the choicest goods, come back to get some deep discounts.

There are a ton of JBF sales going on in and around DFW this fall. Here’s the list. Click the link for each sale if you wish to attend, consign or volunteer.

If you like taking advantage of all the great musical and theater performances going on around Fort Worth, you should get an Arts Card. Available from the Arts Council of Fort Worth, these cards get you discounts on dozens of art, dance, and music-related activities in the Metroplex. Here’s a sampling of just a few of the discounts:

15 percent off single tickets to any 2009-2010 performance at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
A 10 percent store discount at the Kimbell Art Museum
$2 off admission to Saturday or Friday night performances at the Jubilee Theatre
Free admission to all events at the Cowtown Opry

And there’s so much more. See the complete list here. The Arts Card can be yours for a $50 donation to the Arts Council of Fort Worth; see the donation page to make your contribution. If you’re a lover of the fine arts, the discounts you receive with the card should pay for the $50 donation within a few months. Plus, your contribution is tax-deductible.